Sandstorm
by Maul-Junior
Summary: And here it is, folks! We have the action that you were promised, and it is quite a show...PLEASE Review!
1. The Ithorian invitation

Jal sat in his Coruscant apartment sipping on his Nebula Mist drink. The green florescent walls and plants lining his apartment made him feel all the more apart from the city world's industrial feel. He took another drink of his Mist. It seemed like a waste of time to take little sips like a rich aristocrat; he enjoyed things when they were available. While drinking the Nebula Mist he stared into the glass and its swirling pattern of green colors. He had killed 6 people over the course of 4 missions-all for the Empire. It seemed odd to him to imagine their souls swirling around in his drink. But, he had bought this drink with the blood money he earned-for killing them.   
  
Now to his monetary issues... He had a total of 15,020 credits left, not to mention a 4,000 credit rent fee coming up in 2 days. And the food... Anything less then 100 credits for food ended up being fried rodents on a stick, and anything good was priced into the thousands. One hell of an expensive planet. It then seemed ironic to hear the sound of his holo-emitter crackle to life. He walked over to see a tall Ithorian (Hammerhead) standing in front of him. Jal's right eyebrow rose a bit as he listened to the Ithorian speak with both of his mouths.   
  
"Greetings Mr. Jal, I am here to place a request..."   
  
"An Ithorian? What could you possibly want with me?"   
  
"An... umm... A crime lord named Jardo the Hutt has been desecrating our homeworld "Ithor" The Ithorian said nervously, "He is taking away our natural resources.."   
  
The Ithorians were a peaceful race- but they were known as fanatical about their devotion to their sacred "Mother Jungles." The Ithorian continued, "This Hutt, Jardo, can't be stopped by our small forces... It would umm... Help... If you could kill him and destroy his main base."   
  
"And where is that?"   
  
"The planet of Myrkr. He is located on the outskirts of the city of Hyllyard." The nervousness in the Ithorian's voice was palpable.  
  
"That's a big job, how much do I get for it?" Jal asked.  
  
"650,000 credits from the Government of Ithor..."   
  
"Alright." Jal turned off his monitor and felt his jaw almost fall off. He had to get himself a look at the target though. Jardo was a big time crime boss so destroying his base and killing him would appear to be a very hard task to pull off. He'd need some help.   
  
He was getting all the help he needed. For this job, he planned to hire the mercenaries Regina Falco, Xenos, and Condyloma-all received urgent transmissions from Jal, along with the amount of the reward. Of course all 3 of them rushed to the scene.  
  
Jal sat back in his khakis and white shirt as he viewed his colleagues. "Alright," started Jal. "I have taken orders from some Hammerheads who want us to stop a certain crime lord that is harassing some Ithorian planets in the Ottega sector. His name is Jardo the Hutt. I've heard a few stories about how he is related to Jabba the Hutt-just to let you know about the risks. I've also heard that he's quite wealthy and that he is heavily guarded. I also managed a glimpse at his defenses. He lives inside a fortress just 40 miles away from where we are sitting. The place sits out like a sore thumb. All of those screwed up plants that lay about this planet are gone where he lives. His fortress is in between some mountains- that has effectively reduced his area into a little desert. I've spotted 15 turbolasers, 10 ion cannons, and way too many turrets to allow us access by any forcible means. So, I've arranged us to take up a mission for this Jardo." There were angry mutterings from the assembled mercenaries at this. "Don't get upset just yet. I hear that this Hutt likes to inspect his workers before they do any missions for him. That'll be our chance to put a hole in his slimy head and then blow up the place. I've made a little dossier on how things should go smoothly:   
  
1:Fal'Quey-A Weequay. He seems to coordinate much of Jardo's dirtier work. Should be a big threat. We should eliminate him when our assault starts. Wouldn't be surprised if he coordinated security.   
  
2:Jardo the Hutt-He's a Hutt. Should be easy enough to kill once his guards are gone.   
  
3:Jardo's own personal Kuat drive capital class engine is running the base. A few well placed explosives could rupture the entire engine and make a mini Chernobyl.   
  
4:Before the place blows up, we better have defeated those external weapon installments and have found a way to get out of this base. I have observed a few transport ships being docked inside a docking bay located in his base."   
  
Jal sat back in his seat. "That's all I know. I suggest you people keep your identities hidden, because messing with a major crime lord can get us in a load of trouble. Though, it shouldn't matter once all of the fortresses inhabitants are dead. One more thing. That makes 5 of us to share the 650,000 credits. That means we'll all walk away from this with 130,000 credits."  
  
Regina Falco stared at Jal coolly. "But what if word gets out to the Hutt bosses that we were there? What then? Even if we use aliases, I for one, am not totally sure that we might not be IDed by our faces. I probably would be IDed, so I will not use an alias, and I will give our group somewhat more of a convincing story, as well." She stretched. "Leave the transports to me. I'll have the hangar bay cleared of hostiles by the time you get there."  
  
Xenos listened contently to all that Jal had to say. As Jal finished his 'speech,' Xenos was fixed on the amount of money he would receive, 130,000 credits.  
  
That was all that mattered to him, the money. After just finishing his little schooling, Xenos has been in debt with a lot of people including the Hutts. All he had to show for himself was a DD6 blaster pistol, and several caped outfits. This was his chance to start showing his stuff. It was either succeed or die. Xenos could not afford failure.  
  
Jal stood up out of his chair in the "Silver Runner" cantina. Condyloma had an inward sigh of relief with Falco's plan. The reputation of her temper proceeded her, and he was a little nervous of working with her. "Alright. Order of events people:" he began in closing, "Xenos, Condyloma, and Reg; you'll search out the fortress. Your task is to kill Fal-Quey and disable the alarms. Reg and Cond, you'll join up at the hangar bay and secure it. Xenos and I will take out Jardo. One more thing. Try and keep quiet until we get inside. Any objections, ideas, criticisms?"  
  
Condyloma winced, "Sure no problem, my pleasure," he said.  
  
Xenos was relieved that he and Jal would be teaming up. He had heard some good things about him, and knew this was a good place to start his first mission. He patted his blaster holster and said, "I'm ready."  
  
  
"Falco," Jal said, "tell me about your 'convincing story'. Also, I don't run any risk of being IDed as I am not famous-only my work is known."  
  
  
Falco looked puzzled for an instant, then began chuckling, "Did I say convincing story? I meant a more plausible story, since we *are* going to take a job from Jardo."  
  
  
Jal looked all the more puzzled. "Didn't I say, Tell Me About It? I think I did"  
  
Regina grinned, "I think I did too."  
  
"Jal, how are we getting to his compound? I have a ship that could get us to the planet, but the fewer trails leading back to me the better," said Cond.  
  
Xenos also observed this problem. "There are transports inside the compound that we might be able to use to get away, but how do we get in..."  
  
"We're already on the planet." Answered Jal. "Don't worry, its a major hub for pirate activity. It's a simple 40 mile trip to Jardo's base (we'll be using a stolen landspeeder). Not much to lead anybody back to any of us. Once we get there, Jardo should let us right on in. Provided that we have a good cover story. And Xenos, Cond will be piloting one of those transports away from the planet."   
  
"We'll have to dump the stolen transport once we are clear though. That would be another way to implicate us."   
  
"If there is a ship available, don't worry about getting off this planet," said Cond, "Just make sure you get the Hutt" Cond was competent is battle, but he could feel he was a little outclassed in this group. 


	2. Through the Eye of a Needle to the eye o...

Author's note: This is my first SW ff ever...so please be kind...though I can handle flames...:-D [shameless plug]Thrawn-You idiot! you haven't put up the Who Wants to Be a Tyrant story yet![/shameless plug]  
  
right...forgot about that...keep an eye out for it, readers, okay? On to the story!  
  
Jal and the others appeared before the massive building that was their objective. Jal got out of his speeder and moved to the front door. His black suit mingling with the perfect dark of night. It would make the explosions all the more visible once they were escaping. 162,500 credits would be the reward. Seemed good enough. He got out of his speeder and raised his arm to slam the door. Just as his arm was about to strike, a little mechanical eye appeared and chirped "state your business." "I am Greos Lott along with my associates. We are here to meet Jardo the Hutt." The eye retracted back into the wall and then the massive doors started to slide open kicking up dust into Jal's eyes which made him turn away for a second. The roaring sound of a YT-1300 freighter moving in for a landing in the hanger bay 50 meters above Jal made him feel a little more relaxed. "That's our escape" he thought to himself. Once the doors opened up a few meters to reveal the dark area inside, Jal stepped in. A Weequay was standing there with a blaster rifle. "Let's go" he mumbled. After walking through a winding corridor that smelled of bantha poo and was guarded heavily, Jal could see light coming from a well lit room which poured into the winding corridor only a few steps ahead. They reached a large and lively room filled with dancers, games, and plenty of drug users. Jal spotted four doorways leading away from this room. The one to the front of the room had a flight of stairs leading up to the sound of a Hutt's disturbing laugh. The Weequay spoke again as he walked ahead of them. "Make yourselves at home. Jardo will see you soon." The guards were being quite bad at their job and were hunched over a game of Sabacc. "We need to split up and figure out where these hallways lead." The weequay dissappeared into a corridor going to the left. "Any bets that he's Fal'Quey?" Xenos looked around at his surroundings. There were the guards playing Sabacc in the distance, the rest of his assassin teammates around him, and four doorways, each leading to a different direction. Xenos decided that he would take the hallway leading to the left of the room he was currently in, for his gut instinct had *instructed* him. Xenos knew never to question his gut.  
  
"I'll take the left passage," Xenos whispered to Jal. "I just hope my gut is right about this!" It seemed quite obvious that Jardo would be up those flight of stairs, so that would be the final destination. Jal went on to the door nearest the guards on the right side of the room. That left only 2 more hallways to be scouted out by Reg and Stow. "We'll meet back in the main room in 10 minutes. Don't screw this up." Condyloma heard the deep laughter coming from the hutt.  
  
"I'm not going in there by myself," he thought. "Uh, I'll take the other door, without fatso, I"ll be back in 10" Xenos headed up the left flight of stairs and stopped at the top. There was a door behind it with no apparent way of opening it. Then he noticed it had an ID scanner. "****." Xenos whispered to himself. (How the hell am I supposed to get past that?¦ He decided it was more trouble it was worth to find someone capable of opening it, knock em out, and then use their ID, so he decided to attempt to steal one from a guard. Fortunately, the guards were still very deeply involved with the sabacc game to notice Xenos sneaking up to them. Xenos spotted the ID card on the guard nearest him and quickly snatched it. He then ran back up the stairs. I hope that I don¦t have to do anything like that again. Thought Xenos. He put the ID card on the scanner. The door slowly opened... Xenos entered the doorway and noticed nothing peculiar, so he kept moving forward. The hallway took many twists and turns, finally leading to another door. He saw 2 guards, and thought they might have seen him, but fortunately they were talking so their attention was not on him. Xenos hid behind a wall, the only thing between him, and blown cover. He heard the guards chatting about something, and then a new voice joined the conversation. It was the voice of a Weequay. (No doubt this is Fal¦ Quey.¦ Thought Xenos. He was about to move in further, but looked at his watch. "My ten minutes are just about up, better head back."  
  
Regina carefully eased down the hallway she had been assigned, pulling a black mask over her face to make her even more dark. She heard a generator running, and she carefully made her way to it, but was stopped by a blast door. She spotted the controls nearby and opened the doors just enough for her to shimmy through, then closed them after her, only to be faced with another blast door. She openedit just enough to get through and closed it. The humming was much louder now. Looking at the generator, she saw a control panel and realized that this was the machine responsible for raising and lowering the door and the hangar bay door. She made a mental note of that fact and was about to continue on when she heard footsteps coming down the hallway towards her. She quickly ducked into a corner and willed the person not to see the panel's lights on her black outift. The man stopped, entered a three-digit code which Regina memorized, and, above her, a large door opened, which she assumed was the hangar bay door. Satisfied, the guard went back down the hall to where she heard snoring, then the sound of someone being slapped, "BACK TO WORK!" a voice bellowed, "Or do you want to hear from the big boss upstairs?" She heard some grumbling and footsteps going away from her. she eased herself down the hall and saw that it split in two directions. She saw that there was a door at the end of the hallway that read BARRACKS ROOM 3. Smiling, she pulled out a tube of plastic explosives and spread it acros the ceiling above the door, and above the ceiling of the hallway where she came from, in such a way to bring down the ceiling and block the hallway. She felt something buzz against her skin, with no noise, and realized she had two minutes to get back. She carefully made her way through the doors and back to the main room, smugly noting that she was the first one back, but someone else was coming up a hallway, so she wasn't THAT far ahead of everyone.  
  
author end note: is it good? better? stinky? should I give up writing and become a lawyer?  
  
*shudders* enough of that kind of talk!!  
  
REVIEW BEFORE I SUE!  
  
Even though I'm a poet and I don't know it, and I'm not a lawyer! 


	3. The Fall of a Hutt

Jal watched as all of the assassins slowly made their way one by one back into the main room dissolving in the shadowy depths with each pace.   
  
Not too bad, he thought to himself.   
  
The assassins formed a group in one of the more shadowy corners of the room and started to talk about their findings.   
  
"Alright... Xenos, looks like you've stumbled upon Fal'Quey. Whatever is in that room should be checked out... And he should be killed. Reg, you and Cond should go back and open up that hangar bay door. I'll make my way up to Jardo. Once he's dead, I want you, Reg, to blow those barracks sky high and open that door. Cond, you better be ready to make your way to a ship in the docking bay. Cond, I'm counting on you and Reg to secure our escape to get out of there. And Xenos, if that is a security room you stumbled upon, it probably controls those guns outside-which could make our escape very short if they are online...I let you people tag along so I could make money without dying, don't dissapoint me."   
  
Jal left the small group and made his way to the upstairs area where the Hutt lay. His mind concentrated on the KP-44 blaster he had in his vest. This mission would be different.  
Xenos knew this next part of the mission was going to be hard, especially for him. He could only hope that his small DD6 blaster pistol would be enough.  
  
Again, he set off on the hall to the left, still carrying the stolen ID card. He swiftly swiped the card through the slot and hurried through the corridor. Again from his vantage point he saw the two guards, but something else caught his eye. A security camera was placed above the doorway that lead to the security headquarters. He knew he would have to take that camera out.  
  
Xenos took out his blaster and hesitantly leaned on the wall. He strafed as far as he could to the left, without being seen. He easily sniped away the camera, but as he thought the guards came after him. The guards must not have seen action for a long time, because it wasn't hard for him to pick them off one by one.  
  
No alarms were set off, so far so good. Xenos then proceeded to enter the headquarters.  
  
Once he entered, Xenos saw nothing but security systems and computers. He looked some of them over from the doorway. Xenos was not that familiar with computers, but he was able to recognize some of them. "Wow." He thought to himself, "This place controls the lifts, the alarms, the hangars, and automated guns. And that's just what I can see from here."  
  
He stepped inside to get a better look, and perhaps shut off the automated guns, but he felt a blaster nozzle on the back of his head.   
  
"Freeze, don't move a muscle!" said the Weequay.  
  
"Fal'Quey!" muttered Xenos  
  
Fal'Quey replied, "I saw you sneaking around before, I knew you would come here."  
  
Xenos cut his sentence short, "So you scum, are you gonna shoot me or what?" Before he could answer, Xenos thrusted the palm of his hand into Fal'Queys stomach, making him gasp for air, dropping his gun, and losing the advantage he had over Xenos.  
  
Xenos took advantage of the moment by knocking him to the floor and silently shooting his head. He then proceeded to the console. He de-activated the guns surrounding the hangar and managed to open a few blast doors.   
  
That was too easy, Xenos thought, while walking back to the main corridor. He breathed a sigh of relief knowing that his part of the job was finished. He would now follow Jal to find the notorious crime lord, whom they were supposed to kill, Jardo the Hutt.  
Jal heard the booming laughter of Jardo echo throughout the room only 10 steps ahead. "What does he find so funny?" wondered Jal. "He's been laughing all day."   
  
Jal reached the top of the stairs and stood in silent wonder at the room before him. It was a cavernous dome shaped room lined with windows, display screens, holo-pads, and there was Jardo sitting right in front of Jal-his body laying on a plush slab tailored for his sluggish body.   
  
Before Jardo stood a dancer-chained up to a little leash on his wrist.   
  
That disgusted Jal, but he wasn't ready to fight yet.   
  
A dark colored droid stood next to Jardo. It's cone shaped head had two red eyes that stared directly at Jal. The droid appeared quite harmless. 10 Gammorrean guards stood around the room with their blast carbines at hand but didn't pay Jal much attention.   
  
Jardo spoke first in his sloppy native language.   
  
The droid translated, "What do you have to say to the illustrious Jardo?"   
  
Jal heard footsteps behind him and turned around to see Xenos walking up behind him.   
  
"Not much" Jal declared.   
  
His hand dived into his vest and pulled out his KP-44 blaster-a rather handy weapon-and then fired off his first shot. The blaster bolt slammed through the Hutt's head and sent his body tumbling forward off of the couch. He flopped down to the floor in a developing pool of his blood.   
  
Xenos followed suit and removed his blaster to start shooting at the Gamorrean guards who were slowly turning around to witness the racket.   
  
Jal noticed one extremely odd thing-the droid had just spawned 2 blaster cannons on its arms and was looking right at him. Jal pulled a grenade from his side and heaved it at the robot.   
  
The munition exploded in a brilliant display of death sending Jardo's body, 2 Gammorreans, and pieces of furniture to every possible angle.   
  
Jal backed away from the carnage and ducked down only to hear a blaster bolt sizzle past his head. He swiveled to the direction of the shot at fired a bolt into the last Gammorrean guard. Jal then nodded to Xenos and motioned to go down the stairs.   
  
Now, all Jal needed was for Reg to blow up the barracks, a small skirmish to clean out the main room, and then they would be running to the hangar bay. Jal's heart was pumping.  
After Falco had recieved her instructions, she had made her way back down to the hallway where she had been before. Grinning to herself, she pulled out an explosive and fixed it to the door.   
  
Then she made her way back to the main room, reaching into her pocket for the thermal detanator she had stored there. The guards, druggies, and other people paid her no mind. Falco waited and fingered the DL-44 in her pocket.   
  
Suddenly alarms began to blare, and she pulled her left hand out of her pocket, revealing the thermal detanator, dead man's switch activated, /i she thought, iXenos didn't get to the alarms in time. That must mean that Jardo is dead, though./i "NOBODY MOVE!" she shouted, striding into the center of the crowd.   
  
Everyone froze, including the guards, but additional alarms began to blare, and she heard the far blast door open. She smiled and glanced back down the corridor towards the blast doors. Suddenly the second one began to open, and Falco triggered the explosive fixed on the doors, killing the first few beings that were waiting on the other side.   
  
Without a second thought, she triggered the barracks explosives, and the floor itself trembled, almost knocking her to the floor. She ran towards the hangar corridor, and turned around, shooting the guards, whose hands were reaching for their blasters.   
  
She ran down the corridor, through the ruined blast door, slapped open the next one, and hit the controls that locked the main door and opened the hangar bay door. Then she turned and ran for the hangar, dispatching more guards as she went.   
  
As she ran for the hangar, she reached for her comm, she yelled into it, "Get ready to start an internal resonance on this thing!" Then she was at the hangar. She stopped, and the guards caught sight of her. In the split second that they took to grab their blasters, Falco's hands closed over the hard metal of her lightsaber, and she reflected for a brief instant how hard it had been to learn how to use it without the force.   
  
Then the guards began firing, and the blade was humming like a wild thing, reflecting most of the bolts that got close. Falco wondered in the back of her mind where Cond was. then she had her answer, as Cond opened up on the guards, and they were forced to divert some of their attention from Falco.  
Condyloma had trailed behind Falco to cover her back so she could take care of the hangar door. After a moment she ran past him and gave a warning he didn't quite catch. He decided his first priority was to get to the ship.   
  
He came to the two blast doors. Opening and closing them wasn¦t a problem. Opening the hangar door would take some time, the controls seemed to be locked. After reconfiguring the wires he managed to bypass the security.   
  
Before he could open the hangar door, Cond heard alarms, and then the blast doors opened. iDid I do that?/i he wondered.   
  
Someone was opening the hangar doors on the other side, cond ducked and drew his weapon. While he was taking aim at two guards, he felt the blast of an explosion knocking him into the wall. Luckily he was behind cover, the guards however, were not. Past their shredded bodies and the smoke, Cond could see the hangar doors closing again.   
  
He stumbled through into the hangar, partly concealed by the dissipating smoke. He thought the alarms had quit, but they had just been replaced by the ringing in his ears. Now he pieced together what Falco warned him about.   
  
There was enough confusion in the hangar that making it to the YT-1300 wasn¦t difficult. Cond had just lowered the ramp to the freighter when he heard blaster fire behind him, past the blast doors. He ran up into the cockpit and engaged the engines. While he could hear the whine of the drive system he saw Falco running through the hangar door, light saber blazing.   
  
iFalco, a Jedi?/i thought Cond .  
  
He hopped in a turret and opened fire. Some of the guards turned towards him and the ship and opened fire.  
  
Jal and Xenos descended down the stairway into the main room.   
  
The room was in chaos. Dancers were running around, spice users were stumbling about from their seats, and the guards were crashing onto their sabacc games as newly formed corpses.   
  
As Jal and Xenos walked across the room spreading blaster bolts in every direction, Regina was blasting away in the hanger bay.   
  
After the main room was lined with 20+ corpses, Jal and Xenos started running to the hangar bay.   
  
This part was easy as the path was littered with more dead guards, their blood leaving a residue on the walls around them.   
  
Jal ran into the hangar bay with Xenos right behind him and slipped to a halt as he noticed the battle before him.   
  
Regina was using a lightsaber...   
  
Jal took a few more shots and then started sprinting towards the YT-2400 light transport that Cond had picked.   
  
Jal could see mission success very close, but that all stopped the second he heard the loud thump of a droid stalking about behind him. Jal turned around to see the droid who he thought he had destroyed earlier, now standing in the doorway of the hangar bay.   
  
Jal sighed and pulled out his blaster as fast as he could-but the sound of a quad turret blasting away behind him was louder. Four blaster bolts raced on over Jal and hit the droid squarely in the middle.   
  
The droid blew up immediately, and this time Jal saw its head roll about on the ground.   
  
He turned back to the YT-2400 and jumped into into it by the access ramp that was levitating a meter off of the surface of the hangar bay floor.   
  
"Thank you Cond" said Jal.   
  
With a proton torpedo, the hangar bay door shattered and allowed the assassin group a wide berth to escape through. With a few proton torpedoes launched at the building's generator, the dark night sky outlined the flaming wreck of the former Hutt's fortress.  
  
.............   
  
Jal sat around in the back of the passenger hold tapping away at a few buttons on his PSD.   
  
"Well everyone, looks like you'll all be recieving 162,500 credits as payment for this little assignment."   
  
He got up out of his seat and into the cockpit. "Ok Cond, just drop me down near the city."   
  
He walked back out of the cockpit and sat down in one of the seats. Removing a cloth and a power cell, Jal started maintenancing his blaster.   
  
MISSION COMPLETE 


	4. Author's Note

Okay, this WAS written a while go, but I would like to say, right now, that I did not write this alone...this was done on the old Sony Star Wars Galaxies Roleplaying Forum (before the release of the game). I am a way better writer than this, and the only reason that things may seem disjointed is because it had numerous authors...I think there were four or five...  
  
I'd like to thank Audriedi for reviewing this, and giving me more than a "good job! Next chapter please!"  
  
I've got a few stories, and I may put some more up soon...:D 


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